Japchae / Jap Chae (Korean Glass Noodles with Vegetables)

JS:
I'm not a big fan of jap chae (also known as chop chae, job chae), but I always order it when we go to Korean restaurants, probably out of a sense of obligation. I feel like I should like jap chae, but in any case, even if I don't, I know my family members love this noodle dish enough to finish it without my help.

One fine day here in eatingclubvancouverland, my sense of obligation lined up with my desire to get a good deal. When I saw some sweet potato noodles (dangmyun/dangmyeon) on sale, marketed as "Korean traditional food," I thought I'd get them and try to make jap chae at home.

TS:
Well, unlike JS, I love jap chae! I was excited to cook some at home.



TS:
Jap chae can take on various ingredients. In our case, I had onions, carrots, mushrooms, spinach, bell peppers, mushrooms, green onions and garlic. We also had beef, so I added that as well.

To prepare the sweet potato starch noodles, I cooked them in boiling water until tender, then added soy sauce and sesame oil to taste. I also cut them with scissors at this point for ease of eating.

I followed the more "traditional" method of making jap chae by cooking each ingredient separately, seasoning each with a bit of soy sauce and sesame oil, then tossing everything together with the boiled glass noodles.

I added a bit of sugar (or use honey), made a quick adjustment of the seasonings (soy sauce and sesame oil) and the dish was good to go.

Since I am pretty lazy, next time I am going to cook the non-noodle ingredients all at once, adding them to one pan in the order of longest to shortest cooking time.



JS:
Still not a fan -- that is, I probably wouldn't choose to eat jap chae if there are other dishes to have -- but I can see the appeal of it. I'm thinking food preferences must be one of those things, eh? Either you like it or you don't: no harm, no foul, no judgments.

TS:
Let me be the one to "flame" JS, then. FLAME! FLAME! FLAME!

I love jap chae. =)


Scroll down for recipes.

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Recipes
Maangchi: Japchae (stirfried noodle with vegetables)
Tasty Meals at Home: Tasty Jap Chae
Kits Chow: Stir-fried noodles with vegetables, Chap Jae
Steamy Kitchen: Korean Glass Noodles -- Jap Chae / Chap Chae
Dr. Ben Kim: How to Make Jap Chae

eatingclub vancouver Korean
Korean Sprouts & Spicy Cold Cucumber Salad
Kimchi Fried Rice, an addiction
Korean Soybean Sprouts Pancake (Kongnamul Jeon)
Korean Pork Bulgogi (with Muu Namul, Kong Namul)
Korean Roast Salmon
Korean Fried Chicken
Korean Sweet Potatoes with Yangnyeom Sauce
Japchae / Jap Chae (Korean Glass Noodles with Vegetables)
Brown Rice Bibimbap (Korean Rice Bowl)
Korean Oxtail Soup (Gom Tang)

Hunanese Stir-fried Eggs with Green Peppers

TS:
Man, another Fuchsia Dunlop recipe? She should be paying us for advertising her book so heavily! Not that she actually needs us to advertise her books for her. ;)

JS:
She might have needed some help with the advertising before she came out with Land of Plenty, her Sichuanese cookbook. Compared to the Hunan book (Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook), Land of Plenty seems decidedly low-budget.

Anyhoo, the pictures in the Hunan book are glossy, thereby inspiring us to cook some more dishes from it.

This is a simple home-style dish, perfect for those days when going meatless is our heart's desire.

TS:
Yes, non-spicy Hunan dishes do exist. ;)

Although, there is nothing specifically Hunanese about this; it can live quite happily within a number of cuisines.



TS:
It really is as simple as cooking some green peppers, adding beaten eggs, and cooking some more.



TS:
The key for me, however, is the "wok-hei" flavor of the peppers, not that I proclaim to know how to properly achieve wok-hei. But see how the peppers are a little bit charred?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wok_hei#Wok_hei



TS:
We used green bell peppers for this dish as per the recipe. I recall reading in the book that the Hunanese use green peppers often in their cooking.

JS speculated that perhaps that is why we keep seeing small green bell peppers at our usual Asian supermarket. Perhaps they stock these as there seems to be more people from mainland China now (as opposed to people from Hong Kong or Taiwan like days of yore).

In the introduction to the recipe, however, Fuchsia (first name basis) talks about the "lazy piquancy" of the peppers in this dish, and how she uses Turkish peppers with a "gentle hotness".

Hmm, these bell peppers had no heat at all.

JS:
When we ate a Hunan restaurant a couple of weeks ago, one of their dishes was "Pork with Green Chili", for which they used completely de-seeded and de-ribbed jalapeños. I assume this is because the green chiles they use in Hunan is not readily available here.

I missed the hint of heat in this dish, so for next time, I think we'll go the seeded jalapeño route.



eatingclub Hunan dishes
Hunanese Chopped Salted Chiles (剁辣椒)
Mao's Hunan Red-Braised Pork (毛氏紅燒肉)
Steamed Red-Braised Pork with Pickled Mustard Greens (酸菜蒸紅燒肉)
Hunanese Stir-fried Eggs with Green Peppers
Hunanese Steamed Chicken with Salted Chiles (剁辣椒蒸雞)

Some eggy eatingclub dishes
Tarragon-Carrot Deviled Eggs
Golden Egg Torta
Hunanese Stir-fried Eggs with Green Peppers
Tortilla de Patatas (Spanish "Omelette")
Piedmont Marinated Eggs
Asparagus and Crab Egg Crêpes
Stir-fried Egg and Tomato
Oyster Torta
Torta with Pork and Kecap Manis
Curried (Easter) Egg Salad
Taiwanese Stewed Eggs (滷蛋) with Stewed Minced Pork (魯肉 or 肉燥)
Longsilog (Longganisa + Sinangag + Itlog)
Torta (Mexican Sandwich)
Mr. Zheng's Soupy Tomatoes and Eggs with Tofu
Nasi Lemak (Malaysian Coconut Rice Meal with Sambal)
Home-style Chinese Steamed Egg with Pork
Golden Shrimp Torta (Philippine Shrimp Omelette)

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Recipe
Stir-Fried Eggs with Green Peppers
from Fuchsia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province

9 oz. green bell peppers
4 extra-large eggs
salt
3 tbsp. peanut oil for cooking

Discard stems of the peppers and cut on an angle into bite-size chunks. Beat the eggs with salt to taste in a small bowl.

Smear the wok with a little oil and heat over a medium flame. Add the bell peppers and stir-fry for about 5 minutes, pressing them against the side of the wok with your wok scoop/ladle, until they are fragrant and tender, their skins a little golden and puckered.

Add the rest of the oil, and when it is hot, pour in the eggs and mix well. Scramble the eggs and peppers, adding a little more salt to taste, if necessary. Don't stir the eggs too constantly so they set into folds. When the eggs are just cooked, turn onto a serving dish.

Chocolate Black Bean Bites

TS:
This all started because of our new "healthy lifestyle" (which somehow includes binging on potato chips and late at night too -- but only the good ones, of course). I read somewhere that one could make brownies using a brownie mix and substituting puréed black beans for the egg(s) and oil.

I don't usually crave sweet things, but brownies are a favorite. So, this piece of news was perfect! For some reason the idea of using beans appealed to me. Call me strange.

The problem was, obviously, that we didn't have any brownie mix in the house. Obviously. ;)

I wasn't about to run to the store and get a box of brownie mix. That requires effort. So I thought I should just take a brownie-from-scratch recipe and omit the eggs and fat, then add the puréed beans. It should work.



TS:
There it is, the secret ingredient.

I used Alton Brown's Cocoa Brownie recipe. I didn't want to go through the hassle of chopping chocolate, so just cocoa it is. I omitted the eggs -- all 4 of them -- and the butter.

It was a bit "challenging", since the first instruction in the recipe was to beat eggs and sugar together until fluffy. Hmm. No matter. I simply mixed together all the ingredients: sugar, cocoa, flour, vanilla and salt. Then, I added the black beans.



TS:
It sure looked like brownie batter. Into the 300F oven the pan went.

While I was waiting for them to bake, I started browsing online and came upon a "real" Black Bean Brownie recipe. Reading through it, I started thinking that omitting the eggs -- all 4 of them -- may be a mistake.

I believe that brownie mixes often call for just one egg. Is that correct? This recipe called for 4 eggs. Surely they must be good for something! How are my brownies to rise? (Do eggs make brownies rise?) Or do whatever it is that the eggs are supposed to make them do?

I should've searched online first before starting anything!

Well, it was too late. I checked my brownies after a while, but I couldn't tell if they were cooked enough or not! So I left them in the oven for 15 more minutes, making the total baking time one whole hour. That may have been a tad too long.



TS:
There they are after a stint in the refrigerator overnight, as I wanted them to firm up for cutting. The top had a sheen to it. Strange.

I tried a piece.



TS:
It certainly wasn't bad! But, I don't know if it was the lack of eggs, or the long time they spent in the oven, or a combination of the two factors, but the texture wasn't cake-y, nor was it fudge-y. Hence, I am calling them "bites" instead. ;)

Of course, I still prefer "real" brownies.

But, the next time I do try these again, I'll use an actual black bean brownie recipe instead of making one up myself. I don't know what's going on with this baking, I tell you.



TS:
Obviously there's no use in me giving you the recipe for what I made. So, here are a few links to real recipes. have cake, will travel has THREE versions of black bean brownies! Her recipes don't call for eggs either, being vegan. So perhaps my version wasn't too botched up. =)

Alton Brown: Cocoa Brownies
101 Cookbooks: Amazing Black Bean Brownies Recipe
have cake, will travel: Activist Mommy's Vegan Brownies
have cake, will travel: Adapted Black Bean "Brownies"
have cake, will travel: No-Bake Black Bean "Brownies"

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